Real-time task assignment for multi-agent robots-application to cooperative transportation task

Deals with a task-assignment method for cooperative transportation by multiple mobile robots in an open and dynamic area. The problem can be divided into three parts: the dynamic change of tasks, the dynamic change of the robot team composition, and the level of difficulty in finding the optimal solution. The authors propose the following approach: (1) By inputting sensor information to a "task template" and a "task-interaction template," tasks will be dynamically generated. (2) The planner consists of two parts, the task-assignment planner and the motion planner (the latter is made independently for each task); (3) The task-assignment problem is solved by using a linear programming method based on the execution priority described in the "task templates." The effectiveness of the proposed method is verified by a cooperative transport simulation.